Posted on 06/13/2010 1:04:09 AM PDT by XHogPilot
The administration has decreed a six-month moratorium on exploratory drilling in the Gulf, based on a report that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wrote for President Obama. Salazar claimed that a panel of seven experts selected by the National Academy of Engineering had peer reviewed his report. It turns out, though, that the seven experts never saw the recommendation for a moratorium, and in fact oppose it:
The seven experts who advised President Obama on how to deal with offshore drilling safety after the Deepwater Horizon explosion are accusing his administration of misrepresenting their views to make it appear that they supported a six-month drilling moratorium -- something they actually oppose.
The experts, recommended by the National Academy of Engineering, say Interior Secretary Ken Salazar modified their report last month, after they signed it, to include two paragraphs calling for the moratorium on existing drilling and new permits.
Salazar's report to Obama said a panel of seven experts "peer reviewed" his recommendations, which included a six-month moratorium on permits for new wells being drilled using floating rigs and an immediate halt to drilling operations.
"None of us actually reviewed the memorandum as it is in the report," oil expert Ken Arnold told Fox News. "What was in the report at the time it was reviewed was quite a bit different in its impact to what there is now. So we wanted to distance ourselves from that recommendation."
Salazar apologized to those experts Thursday.
Carol Browner tried to claim that the administration did nothing wrong, but it is hard to follow her logic:
"No one's been deceived or misrepresented," Browner told Fox News, defending the moratorium as a safety measure. "These experts gave their expert advice, and then a determination was made looking at all of the information, including what these experts provided -- that there should be a pause, and that's exactly what there is. There's a pause."
That, of course, is very different from attributing the recommendation of a moratorium to the experts, or claiming that they had "peer reviewed" it. In fact, the expert panel made cogent arguments against the administration's moratorium:
In a letter the experts sent to Salazar, they said his primary recommendation "misrepresents" their position and that halting the drilling is actually a bad idea.
The oil rig explosion occurred while the well was being shut down - a move that is much more dangerous than continuing ongoing drilling, they said.
They also said that because the floating rigs are scarce and in high demand worldwide, they will not simply sit in the Gulf idle for six months. The rigs will go to the North Sea and West Africa, possibly preventing the U.S. from being able to resume drilling for years.
They also said the best and most advanced rigs will be the first to go, leaving the U.S. with the older and potentially less safe rights operating in the nation's coastal waters.
So this looks like one more instance where the Obama administration is neither honest nor competent, and where its first instinct seems to be to pursue the course that will most damage our economy.
This really is shocking. Inserting items after they’ve signed off!
Get ready for step 3:
1. Communists lie to gain power.
2. Communists enslave to spread power.
3. Communists commit mass murder to keep power.
WTF?!! This is costing people THEIR LIVELIHOODS!
Lets hope the moratorium doesnt go through because it will be a disaster for the oil industry in the gulf.
100,000 people alone in Louisiana will lose their jobs. The big rigs are going to leave the gulf and when that idiot in the white house is done increasing their taxes they will probably never return and the GOM will truly be the dead sea.
That boob has got to go.
He has no idea who's being addressed when the reporters start shouting "Mr. President?"
(Now if they said "Guy who doesn't know what he's doing?'...)
Mrkd
This is like shutting down all the airports because of one terrible plane crash. The decision makes no sense and flies contrary to expert advice - it seems his ideologic agenda is more important to him than the lives affected by the Gulf and the economy.
for reference
They also said that because the floating rigs are scarce and in high demand worldwide, they will not simply sit in the Gulf idle for six months. The rigs will go to the North Sea and West Africa, possibly preventing the U.S. from being able to resume drilling for years.
obama likes the idea of this. It will expediate his mission.
As another string (related to this subject) puts it "If ignorance is bliss, then this is one very happy WH"
“This really is shocking. Inserting items after they’ve signed off!”
What else did you expect from this administration? Are you really surprised?
Did they think we wouldn’t notice this blatant, and clumsy deception?
Or do they just not care, knowing that by the time November rolls around, the elections will be moot?
Salazar has apparently taken pointers from the IPCC.
Get together a big list of “experts” and then put your own conlusion at the top of the “report.”
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This is one article you will never see on CNN, or MSNBC.
Isnt the drilling taking place more than 12 miles out in the Gulf? Isnt that in International waters where Obama cannot put a moratorium anyway?
I can't quite believe it, it's so bad. It ought to be the biggest news story current. Ought to be bigger than Watergate, it's certainly more damaging. An attempt at permanent crippling of our oil industry, falsely based on the advice of experts? Where is the outrage?
The U.S. is not going to allow someone to be in international waters near territorial waters unless they have our permission or are our citizens. The whole national security thing comes into play.
Indeed, there are lies, damned lies, and Obama administration statements:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2532196/posts
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